Flicker's Attack of 50' Reel A Hit

[Scott Spears]

Just got back from the Attack of the 50's Reels at the Eygptian Theatre in LA and have to say it was a hit. There were some very inventive films. Some looked very clean, where others were grainy, but for some the grain worked well.

Films of note:
Bil White's "Ameoba Love" - It had technical problems, but I just liked it.

Erik Anderson's - super clean, almost grainless time lapse images of LA

Steve Nevius' "no more americans" - clever, sync sound comedy.

David Palmer's "Clean" - nice little come up and bite you short. Very clean looking B&W.

And many more, but it's late and I gotta hit the sack.

Scott

[Alex]

Some quick technical notes, the Plus-X films just absolutely rocked and visually are of worthy of film theatre projection. All the Super-8 films last night were VIDEO projected and the Plus-X film still looked teriffic, good enough for a theatrical release!

Kodachrome rocks, as we all know.

Ektachrome was on the edge. Yale film labs made a really funny film and I presume they used Ektachrome.

The Ektachrome skin tones were every bit as good as Kodachrome skin tones, the ektachrome grain was not huge but noticeable. I wonder if the grain could have ever so slightly been "softened" on the rank without compromising the clarity of the image, as the image was sharp. The rank has huge adjusting parameters and I wonder if there is a "sweet spot" where the grain can be reduced just a tad more from what I saw last night.

Hopefully some other filmmakers will share their experiences from last night.

[ccowen]

Congratulations to all of the ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT REELS filmmakers! I was blown away last night by how well every film played. Even the filmmakers who ran out of film composed some beautiful shots and did some impressive things given the restrictions of ATTACK.

Can't wait for next year!

Christopher Cowen

[Alex]

We even had a SYNC SOUND film that was very entertaining!

[Scott Spears]

If anybody can confirm what stock and camrea "Blink" was shot on, I'd greatly appreciate it. As I said above, I was amazed at how grainless and sharp it was.

Scott

[Alex]

So many of the films had their own theme that made it different from the other films being shown.

Two films were "one takes" all the way through and featured an "ensemble cast" that weaved in and out of the storyline while the camera never stopped.

Once was a dance number, the other was a sync dialogue driven pieced. I remember one film had focus problems but I positively loved the music soundtrack that was probably handmade for the film.

There were 2 time-lapse city-scape films. A humerous look at a couple of people think about what is happening to them throughout the day, the soundtrack on this film was really well crafted as the different streams of thought begin to overlap
and bombard the senses.

The floating ink film which changed chapters by using different colors of ink was interesting, and daring when one considers that that kind of special effect really shouldn't be done when one is making an in camera edit film.

One film took a year and a half to make and was shot in locations all over the world!

[ccowen]

Here are some of my brief thoughts on the FLICKER films. (Forgive me if I've confused films...but I'd love to hear what others thought as well...)

Exact Change Man: Great concept, and some very funny moments !

Live: Highly conceptual and interesting shots at many point throughout.

No Sympathy: Given the underground swell of wrestling films...this one was right on target.

Amoeba Love: Loved this idea. And your actors were great. I wondered if Amoeba let you shoot while they were open?

Blink: Erik Anderson should be a dp on feature films. His visuals are stunning. I saw his timpe-lapse last year which was equally as good. I wonder what he might be able to do with a narrative.

A Young Girl's Diary: Interesting reveal at the end that the V.O. was Sigmund Freud.

Glass, Blood, Melting Flesh: The shot of the woman looking into the mirror on the beach was intriguing. As was some of the high speed stuff.

Model Behavior: Norwood's tribute to Terry Gilliam??? Brilliant! Told a story. Looked great. Had a social comment! No wonder he is the Flicker King.

Jeannie Part Two: The filmmaker said afterwards that he thought the film had been x-rayed at airports too much. I thought that the muted tones gave the film a classic pastel look!

Breakfast: There were a series of shots that I honestly thought should be made into stills from this film. Especially the opening shot of the vampire in a crouch. Pretty disturbing but powerful images.

Butts Up!: (My film. I'd love to hear your thoughts.)

YALE LABS CHEEKZILLA FILM: Hilarious if you know Norwood. Hilarious anyways!

1991:

Forgoten Heroes: The Security Guards story was powerful even though it was supported only by v.o. and newspaper images.

Things That I Love: Great idea to combine narrative and montage/collage type filmmaking. I liked it a lot.

Filtered Stockings: Some interesting visuals captured when she was running.

Sueno: The inkdrop was an insanely cool visual and I really hope that the filmmakers intended his soundtrack to put us all on edge...because it did!

No More Americans: Sync sound! Brilliant and simple storytelling.

timeLApse: More great time lapse stuff! The stuff the filmmaker did at night on the freeways rivaled Erik Anderson's stuff.

The 3 350's vs. the 2 Wheel Bandit": These guys look like they had fun making their film...and they managed to tell a clear story and get some huge laughs from the audience!

Clean: One of my favorite films of the night. Brilliantly consdtructed simple story line. Great acting. Great punchline (all timing). Perfect crisp visuals and exposure!

dreaming of: I really liked the deliberate pacing of this film.

Pie: Really interesting montage/collage idea which was well executed.

Fifty Feet That Shook The World: Holy Christ this film had too take some serious time and planning to pull off what they pulled off. I loved the Battleship Potemkin reference!

[eons]

Originally posted by ccowen:
Sueno: The inkdrop was an insanely cool visual and I really hope that the filmmakers intended his soundtrack to put us all on edge...because it did!

<font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">I definitely approached the soundtrack in the same way as the visuals, that is, I wanted the audience to have to work hard. I didn't just want to slap on a Pink Floyd song and instantly associate the ink visuals with psychedellia, etc., or have any kind of music soundtrack to make the imagery and lack of narrative more palatable. I think part of the edginess you mentioned comes from the fact that people find it difficult to sit in silence, especially larger groups. Also, I'm sure people kept waiting for whatever they thought they were supposed to get, that is people who might have little experience watching non narrative experimental films. That waiting leads to an anxiety. I think the soundtrack, in it's sparseness and kind of repetitive droning only helped to fuel the tension. I'm glad that it had that effect. To me, a sucessful experimental film is one which evokes a clear mood felt by the audience.

[eons]

Originally posted by Alex:
that kind of special effect really shouldn't be done when one is making an in camera edit film.

<font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">Why do you say that Alex?

[Alex]

It's meant as a complement!

I think doing those kind of special effects for an in camera edited film can lead to severe mood shifts followed by super-8 psychosis and neurosis! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

You stop the camera and then watch your beautiful shot continue to develop uncaptured by your super-8 camera because you had to save film for your next set-up.

When do you start the camera in relation to the ink dropping, when do you stop?

What if you stop or start too soon or too late [img]rolleyes.gif[/img] ? The odds are so against doing it right if you do it once, but doing it several times in the same in camera edited film just makes it that much more difficult that you will get what you want when it comes to pacing each and every time.

I think you managed the task very well, but time will tell if it caused any lasting neurosis [img]graemlins/bat.gif[/img]